McGuire on M&M: Seidenberg might return

NBC sports hockey analyst Pierre McGuire joined Mut & Merloni on Friday to discuss the Bruins’ winning streak and the potential for league expansion. To hear the interview, go to the Mut & Merloni audio on demand page.

McGuire learned from friends of Dennis Seidenberg in the Hurricanes organization that the defenseman could return to the ice this season for Boston.

“I was talking with some of their people around the team who are really tight with Seidenberg, and he was actually telling them that there’s a chance that he might be back for the playoffs,” McGuire said.

“With him I don’t think there’d be a lot of issues,” McGuire said of Seidenberg returning for the playoffs. “He’s a tremendous athlete — extremely fit. He’s very strong — everybody knows that. I don’t think there’d be that big of an adjustment for him.”

The news comes as the Bruins look to extend their winning streak to 11 games Friday night against the Avalanche.

“You see the level of consistency and when they need to defend a lead, they know how,” McGuire said of the B’s recent success. “When they need to generate some enthusiasm in the building, they know how by being physical. Their cycle game is excellent. They’re four lines deep.”

Following are more highlights from the interview. For more on the Bruins, visit the team page at weei.com/bruins.

On the Avalanche: “They’re really fast. They play with a lot of tempo. They have serious skill. Matt Duchene is for real. Gabriel Landeskog‘s for real. … The thing you’ll admire about their group, though, is they have character on their defense and that’s the one thing that’s not talked about a lot. There’s not a lot of big names on their defense, but it’s got a lot of character.

“Patrick Roy told me this at the beginning of the year: ‘We have to get back to being the Colorado Avalanche. We don’t want to be a checking team. We want to be a puck-possessing, in-your-face, up-tempo team.’ And it looks like that’s what they’re going to be.”

On a potential NHL expansion: “I think expansion’s coming, and I think we’re going to have two teams — one in Las Vegas and one in Seattle. I think the expansion will be anywhere from [$]280 [million] to $320 million per team, so it’s significant. Remember, we lost half a season last year. Also, the ownership groups that are in the league now lost half a season of revenue. That will more than make up for that half a season of lost revenues.

“Seattle’s a viable market. There are two potential suitors that want to buy a team there, and Las Vegas is a viable market only because there’s tremendous ownership potential there and they have a new building that’s going up. I could see both those happening, and they need two more teams in the West.”

On how expansion will change the league: “Maybe some fans won’t agree with this — we haven’t had expansion in almost a decade and a half, and the talent pool that’s been coming into the league since 2003 is the greatest we’ve ever had in the history of the National Hockey League, so when you combine no expansion and amazing resources talent-wise with young players and a salary cap, you have all this parity.

“I know people like the tight games, but they also like super teams. They also like dominant super teams. You can’t have those now. Expansion will lead to a little bit of filtering and spread some more players around the league, and it will make for some super teams.”

Greg and Chris talk with Mike Reiss from ESPN Boston in hour 2 of NFL Sunday to discuss a variety of offseason happenings with the Pats and throughout the league. Greg and Chris also get into the NFL Draft and where Mariota and Winston will go.

Mike Reiss calls the guys to talk about the offseason news for the Pats. He talks about the Pats/Jets tampoering fiasco, free agency, where he sees Ridley and Connolly ending up, if the Patriots would be interested in Reggie Wayne and more.

In the first hour of the show, Greg and Chris discuss the news coming out of the owners' meetings this week and rule changes. Belichick's blow-up over the league not wanting to spend on endzone cameras was well documented and the guys react. They also talk about the Jets ridiculous tampering charges, free agents still lingering out there, where Stevan Ridley will land and the RB position in New England. Dickerson and Price briefly discuss the adventures of Tom Brady before being joined by WEEI.com's Mike Petraglia to talk all things Pats in the offseason.

Flannery joins Mut to break down the Isaiah Thomas trade to Boston and what it means for the Celtics this season and in the future. Paul also chats with Mut about the other deals that happened at the NBA's trading deadline

Mut, Tomase, and Bradford kick things off talking about Shane Victorino taking offense to people reading into some comments he made about trading for Cole Hamels. They also discuss Blake Swihart and how soon he could be up if Christian Vazquez starts the season on the DL.

Joe Kelly joined the Hot Stove show where he talked about being ready for his next spring training start after a biceps ailment forced him out of his last outing, he talks about his NCAA brackets and how teammate Wade Miley has a perfect bracket still.

Peter Chiarelli joined the Sunday Skate crew to talk about the Bruins playoff push heading into the final handful of games of the regular season. Chiarelli talked about avoiding some of the overly negative feedback he gets while realizing that the team does have real issues. He discusses what went down at the trade deadline and if he was happy with the outcome, Lucic having a down year and underperforming, the salary cap and if he considers it as big of an issue as it's been made out to be and what the future holds for the team.

It's a big hour #2 for the Sunday Skate dudes - they talk about the B's defenseman and what the future looks like at that position, with both moves the team can make and younger guys in the AHL. They also get into the Bruins philosophy on bringing guys up and sending them back down and how players deal with that. Finally, the boys are joined by Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli to discuss EVERYTHING.

The Sunday Skate crew gets the show going discussing the Bruins big, impressive victory over the NY Rangers yesterday. What can you take from that game? According to LB - Lyndon Byers - who called the guys from the road, not a lot. LB drops a dime on what was going on with the Rangers yesterday. DJ and Joe discuss Claude's lines and groupings and the importance of Ryan Spooner. They also get into Lucic, his contributions this year and if he can turn things around.

With the Wells report seemingly wrapping up (we hope), Tim and Lou got to talking about possible fines and punishments the Patriots must face. It's possible that the Patriots will face a small fine, but should they take that laying down? The conversation brings out a little passion from BOTH sides.